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Simon J. Ortiz
| birth_place = Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Poet | genre = | movement = Native American literature | notableworks = Fight Back | influences = Acoma Pueblo tradition | influenced = | website = }} Simon J. Ortiz (born May 27, 1941) is a Native American poet of the Acoma Pueblo tribe, a key figure in the 2nd wave of what has been called the Native American Renaissance. Life Youth Ortiz, a half-blooded Pueblo, is a member of the Badger or "Dyaamih" Clan. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he was raised in the Acoma village of McCartys (the Keresan name is "Deetzeyaamah"), and spoke only Keresan at home. His father, a railroad worker and a woodcarver, was an elder in the clan who was charged with keeping the religious knowledge and customs of the pueblo. Ortiz attended McCartys Day School through the 6th grade. Afterward he was sent to St. Catherine's Indian School in Santa Fe, as most Native children were sent to Indian boarding schools at the time. Attempting to provide an English language education, such boarding schools sought to assimilate Native American children into "American" mainstream culture, and strictly forbade them to speak their own native languages. Thus, the young Ortiz began to struggle with an acute awareness of the cultural dissonance that was shaping him and began to write about his experiences and thoughts in his diaries and compose short stories. While frustrated with his situation, he became a voracious reader and developed a passionate love of language, reading whatever he could get his hands on — including dictionaries, which he felt let his mind travel within a "state of wonder." Homesick for his family and community, Ortiz became disillusioned with St. Catherine's. He transferred to Albuquerque Indian School, which taught trade classes such as plumbing and mechanics. He took both metal and woodworking classes, but his father was opposed to the prospect of his son's future being in manual labor. However, the day after graduating from Grants High School (in Grants, New Mexico near Acoma) Ortiz began work as a laborer at Kerr-McGee, a uranium plant. Interested in becoming a chemist, he initially applied for a technical position. Instead, he was made a typist, soon demoted to being a crusher, and later promoted as a semi-skilled operator. His experience as a mining laborer would later inspire his monumental work, "Fight Back: For the Sake of the People, for the Sake of the Land." Ortiz eventually saved enough money to enroll in Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, as a chemistry major with the help of a BIA educational grant. While enthralled with language and literature, the young Ortiz never considered pursuing writing seriously; at the time, it was not a career that seemed viable for Native people; it was "a profession only whites did". Literary career After a three-year stint in the U.S. military, Ortiz returned to college at University of New Mexico. There, he discovered few ethnic voices within the American literature canon and began to pursue writing as a way to express the generally unheard Native American voice that was only beginning to emerge in the midst of political activism. Two years later, in 1968, he received a fellowship for writing at the University of Iowa in the International Writers Program. In 1988 he was appointed as tribal interpreter for Acoma Pueblo, and in 1989 he became First Lieutenant Governor for the pueblo. In 1982, he became a consulting editor of the Pueblo of Acoma Press. Educational career Since 1968, Ortiz has taught creative writing and Native American literature at various institutions, including San Diego State, the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, Navajo Community College, the College of Marin, the University of New Mexico, Sinte Gleska University (one of the first U.S. tribal colleges) , and the University of Toronto. He currently teaches at Arizona State University. Recognition Ortiz's awards include the New Mexico Humanities Council Humanitarian Award, the National Endowment for the Arts Discovery Award, the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Writer's Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. In 1981 Ortiz was an honored poet recognized at the White House Salute to Poetry. The sane year, From Sand Creek: Rising In this heart which is our America received a Pushcart Prize in poetry. Ortiz also received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Returning the Gift Festival of Native Writers (the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers) and from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas (1993).List of NWCA Lifetime Achievement Awards, accessed 6 Aug 2010. Publications Poetry *''Naked in the Wind''. Pembroke, NC: Quetzal/Vihio Press, 1971. *''Going for the Rain: Poems''. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. *''A Good Journey''. Berkeley, CA: Turtle Island, 1977; Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press (Sun Tracks), 1984. *''Fight Back: For the sake of the people, for the sake of the land''. Albuquerque, NM: Institute for Native American Development, Native American Studies, University of New Mexico, 1980. *''A Poem is a Journey''. Bourbonnais, IL: Patricia Lieb & Carol Schott, 1981. *''From Sand Creek: Rising in this heart which is our America.'' New York: Thunders Mouth Press, 1981. *''This America'' St. Paul, MN: Bieler Press, 1981. *''After and Before the Lightning''. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1994. *''Telling Her and Showing Her: The earth, the land''. Just Buffalo Literary Center, 1995.Telling Her and Showing Her, Google Books, Web, Jan. 4, 2015. *''Pause, Yours, Ours''. Seattle, WA: Wood Works, 2000. *''Out There Somewhere''. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2002. Short fiction *''A Ceremony of Brotherhood, 1680-1980''. Albuquerque, NM: Academia, 1981. *''Changing the Routine: Selected short stories''. Subterranean Co., 1982.Changing the Routine: Selected short stories, Amazon.com. Web, Jan. 4, 2015. *''Howbah Indians: Stories''. Tucson, AZ: Blue Moon Press, 1978. *''Fightin': New and collected short stories''. New York: Thunders Mouth Press, 1983. *''Men on the Moon: Collected short stories''. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1999. Non-fiction *''Song, Poetry, and Language: Expression and perception''. Tsaile, AZ: Navajo Community College Press, 1977. *''Traditional and Hard-to-find Information Required by Members of American Indian Communities''. Office of Library & Information Services, 1978. *''The Importance of Childhood''. Pueblo of Acoma, NM: Pueblo of Acoma Press, 1982. Juvenile *''Blue and Red''. Pueblo of Acoma, NM: Pueblo of Acoma Press, 1982.Simon J. Ortiz, 1941-, Native American Authors, University of Michigan. Web, Jan. 4, 2015. *''The People Shall Continue'' (illustrated by Sharol Graves). San Francisco: Children's Book Press, 1988. *''The good rainbow road = Rawa 'kashtyaa'tsi hiyaani: A native American tale in Keres and English, followed by a translation into Spanish'' (illustrated by Michael Lacapa). Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2004. Collected editions *''Woven Stone'' (poetry & prose). Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1992. Edited *''Questions and Swords: Folktales of the Zapatista revolution''. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press, 2001. *''Earth Power Coming: Short fiction in native American literature''. Tsaile, AZ: Navajo Community College Press, 1983. *''Speaking for the Generations: Native writers on writing''. Tucson, AZ: University of Arixona Press, 1998. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Simon J. Ortiz, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 4, 2015. See also *Native American poets *List of U.S. poets References * Wiget, Andrew. Simon Ortiz. Boise State University Printing and Graphic Services, 1986. Notes External links ;Poems *"My Father's Song" * Selected Poetry of Simon Joseph Ortiz (1941- ) (13 poems) at Representative Poetry Online. * Simon J. Ortiz b. 1941 at the Poetry Foundation. ;Books * ;Audio / video *Simon J. Ortiz at YouTube ;Books *Simon J. Ortiz at Amazon.com ;About * Simon J. Ortiz profile at the Academy of American Poets. * Simon J. Ortiz at Native American Authors *Simon J. Ortiz: Native American poet and storyteller at Native American Writers * This articles uses Creative Commons-licensed text from the NativeWiki. Original article is at Simon J. Ortiz. Category:1941 births Category:People from Albuquerque, New Mexico Category:American poets Category:Living people Category:Native American poets Category:Writers from New Mexico Category:Native American academics Category:Native American children's literature Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:21st-century poets